Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

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British military confirms atomic bomb incident at base in Germany

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Sept 3, IRNA
Germany-Britain-Nuclear bomb
An unidentified spokeswoman for the German -based British military confirmed Monday a report about an atomic bomb incident at a Royal Air Force base in the west German town of Brueggen on May 2, 1984.

A nuclear warhead which had eight times the explosive power of the US Hiroshima atomic bomb, was damaged in transit when its container slid off a wet trailer as it cornered, the British New Scientist magazine cited newly declassified government reports over the weekend.

The warhead rolled onto the tarmac and was dented within its container.

The military base was closed down while the bomb was partially dismantled and scientists were flown in from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in Berkshire, UK, to X-ray the warhead.

The incident, blamed on lapses in safety procedures, was among two of Britain's most serious nuclear weapons accidents in the 1980s.

The British army has removed its atomic weapons from Germany since 1998.